Tag, You're It
}}"Tag, You're It", originally titled "Tag", is the ninth track by Melanie Martinez featured on her debut album, Cry Baby. The first studio snippet was released on August 3rd, 2015 on Melanie's Instagram. It is the prequel to Milk and Cookies and a double feature music video for the song was released on August 23rd, 2016. Leak History * June 13th, 2019 - A snippet of the song's official demo is leaked in the Discord server "#PopHatesFlops". * June 21st, 2019 - Two snippets of the song's official demo are leaked on Instagram. * June 25th, 2019 - A snippet of the song's official demo is leaked on Instagram. * July 10th, 2019 - An extended snippet of the song's official demo is leaked on Instagram. * July 12th, 2019 - The full official demo is leaked on YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYK7K1HyIuE Theme Tag, You're It is about Cry Baby getting kidnapped, utilizing the children's game "tag" as a metaphor. Cry Baby is now very vulnerable and alone, and gets kidnapped by a "wolf". As the song begins, it is evident that the "wolf" has been watching her for a while, and sees her as the perfect victim. The "wolf" pulls up alongside Cry Baby in his car and offers her candy. The tinted windows will hide her once she’s inside. Despite the fact that she says no, he continues to pursue her and chase her through the parking lot, meaning that she's running and he's following after her. The phrase, "Tag, you're it" is a metaphor for him catching her. He finally catches up to her, pushing her down so she stops running and covers her mouth so she cannot scream. She still screams for help but her situation is starting to seem hopeless. She attempts to fight back by biting him, despite being incapacitated in the lyric, "Little bit of poison in me, I can taste your skin in my teeth". She is taken to his basement where he is fascinated by the proof of her presence through something as simple as her breathing. As the last part of the chorus is sung her tone shifts to a more bitter and angry tone, having given up hope of being rescued. The repetition of the phrase makes it seem as if it was replaying it in her head. Lyrics Videos Tag, you're it Milk and Cookies Double Feature Melanie Martinez - Tag, you're It Tag you're it (Demo) By Melanie Martinez|Official demo Music Video The music video begins immediately after the events of Pity Party, with shots of the exterior of Cry Baby's house being shown. Cry Baby is shown angrily throwing away the streamers from her party. The Big Bad Wolf is then shown driving an ice cream truck and it is seen that he has a knife with him. Cry Baby is then shown in the grocery store buying food. Meanwhile, the Big Bad Wolf is driving in his ice cream truck, following Cry Baby. On his way there, he waves to a bus full of kids. When Cry Baby checks out, the cashier hands her a bottle of poison. When Cry Baby walks out of the grocery store, the Big Bad Wolf is waiting for her in his ice cream truck. Cry Baby asks for strawberry ice cream, but he instead gives her an ice cream cone with vanilla ice cream. She tries to hand him money, but he shakes his head. When she eats the ice cream, she begins to become drowsy and shots from the video and the Milk and Cookies portion of the double feature are shown, and she then falls to the ground. The Big Bad Wolf then lifts Cry Baby into his ice cream truck. As it begins to fade to black, music is heard from the ice cream truck. Cast * Big Bad Wolf: Brian Zuniga * Cashier: Elita Harkov Errors * Cry Baby agrees to take the Big Bad Wolf's ice cream twice, from two different camera angles. Trivia * Tag is a playground game that involves one or more players chasing other players in an attempt to "tag" or touch them, usually with their hands. There are many variations; most forms have no teams, scores, or equipment. Usually, when a person is tagged, the tagger says, "Tag, you're it". * It was explained by Melanie that since now Cry Baby is single, "wolves" are on the prowl. She gets kidnapped by a "wolf". ** The wolf is disguised as an ice cream man. ** The wolf has the same knife that Cry Baby had in Alphabet Boy. * The wig Melanie wore in the music video is similar in color to the silver and black wig that she wore in Cry Baby. * Just like on the record, Tag You're It, happens right after Pity Party. At the beginning of the music video, Cry Baby is shown angrily throwing a pile of streamers into the trash, indicating that her birthday party from Pity Party just ended. ** Melanie also rented the same house she shot the Pity Party music video in. * This is the shortest song on the standard version of Cry Baby. ** On the deluxe version, Tag, You're It is the second shortest song; it is only longer than Play Date. * Melanie has explained that this song, along with Milk and Cookies and Dollhouse, wasn't inspired by her own life.http://noisey.vice.com/blog/stream-melanie-martinezs-debut-lp-cry-baby * Tag, You're It replaced Jump Rope on the album at the last second. * The double feature has reached over 78 million views and 1.4 million likes on YouTube. ** It took 4 days to edit. ** It was filmed at Prospect Park South in Brooklyn, New York on Albemarle Road. ** It is not available on iTunes and Apple Music for unknown reasons. * This is the most popular audio from the Cry Baby era, with more than 38 million views and 352 thousand likes. ** In the title of the audio, the song is stylized as Tag, you're It. * This song was certified gold by the RIAA on January 10th, 2019. * When Cry Baby is in the grocery store, Crazy Cow and Jets cereal boxes appear, which were popular cereal brands by General Mills from the 1970s. ** Sugar Crisp cereal boxes also appear which was a popular cereal brand by Post Cereals. * Melanie said in an interview that there could be a song on K-12 flashing back to this song, but this song was most likely scrapped. * Melanie stated that this song was originally about an abusive relationship and that Milk and Cookies was her poisoning her abusive boyfriend with milk and cookies. However, both songs were changed to fit the theme of Cry Baby. * The bridge references the children's counting rhyme "Eenie Meenie Miney Mo". * In the physical storybook edition of Cry Baby, "vulnerable" was misspelled as "vunerable." This mistake was fixed in newer releases of the album. * In the demo version of the song, there is a portion at the end where she sings "Tag, you're it" in acapella then laughs. * The story and illustration for this song appear on the 19th page of the Cry Baby storybook, reading: "A lonely girl so vulnerable To her house she walks alone The bad wolf ice-cream man had known And took her to his awful home" Gallery Tag, You're It/Gallery References Navigation Category:Songs Category:Original Songs Category:Released Songs Category:Songs With Music Videos Category:Gold Certified Category:Cry Baby Category:2015 Category:Scott Harris Category:Rick Markowitz Category:Melanie Martinez Category:Michael Miller Category:SmarterChild